The subject matter herein relates generally to thermal bridges for providing thermally conductive paths between thermal elements or components.
Electrical components, such as resistors, capacitors, transistors, inductors, integrated circuits, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and the like, disposed on circuit boards or other substrates typically generate heat during use. The electrical components are often enclosed in a case or housing of a device in order to protect the electrical components from exterior contaminants such as moisture and debris. In an example, a circuit board having one or more electrical components may be secured within a connector housing of a plug or receptacle electrical connector. A build-up of heat in the enclosure may negatively affect the operations of the electrical components, so heat transfer devices may be installed to transfer heat from inside the enclosure to outside the enclosure. Thermal bridges are installed between the heat generating components (for example, the electrical components and/or the circuit board) and the heat receiving components (for example, the enclosure and/or a heat sink on the enclosure) to provide a thermally conductive path from the heat generating components to the heat receiving components to transfer heat away from the heat generating components.
Some known thermal bridges are solid thermally-conductive blocks that have a fixed height between the heat generating components and the heat receiving components. But, the distance (or height of the gap) between the heat generating components and the heat receiving components may vary along a length and/or width of the components. For example, some heat generating electrical components on a circuit board may be taller than other heat generating electrical components on the circuit board. Due to the fixed height of the known thermal bridges, the thermal bridges are not able to properly conductively couple to both the taller and the shorter electrical components on the circuit board. For example, the thermal bridge may engage a taller electrical component and may define a gap between the thermal bridge and a shorter electrical component. Due to the gap, the resistance of the thermal path from the shorter component to the thermal bridge is significantly increased. Due to variations in the heights or distances between the heat generating components and the heat receiving components, some thermal bridges include a thermal interface material at heat transfer interfaces of the thermal bridges. The thermal interface materials may include underfilms, encapsulants, putties, or the like. The thermal interface materials may be at least partially compliant to accommodate some variation in height, but the thermal interface materials may not be able to accommodate some height variations that are greater than a compliancy range of the thermal interface materials, and the thermal interface materials may not be able to conform properly to a high frequency of variations along a length and/or width of the heat generating and/or heat receiving components.